Hello all,

I'm a Suzuki fan with a V-Strom and an SV650 in the garage, and one very cherry '96 DR650 on evaluation (from a friend) siitting next to them. I really like the DR, but after reading all the write-ups about the base gasket, this one has me worried. It has an oil seepage problem, but to be honest it looks like it's coming from the oil line fitting just above the oil filter, not the base gasket.

Could some kind soul out here do me a favor and look up the torque spec on the fitting bolt?

Without the torque specs I don't want to mess with it...t'aint my bike and all that. Thanks a bunch, I really want this to be a simple fix, cuz I really like the bike but don't want to pay for a base gasket R&R if I fork over the hard-earned dinero.

Idaho Bruce

For the '01 / '02 model it's as follows.
if it's the one (single bolt through oil pipe end) above oil filter in front of
cluch lever on the right side cover it's 20 N.m (2.0 kg-m, 14.5 lb-ft)
same for the one on the left case, back
the one on the head 23 N.m (2.3 kg-m, 16.5 lb-ft)

I think they are all pretty much the same '96 thru '04. Anyone second this??

The "bad" base gasket was not used until after 2000. That doesn't mean yours can't leak but it is not as likely on that bike.
If you search this forum you should be able to find a downloadable shop manual for the DR. It used to be under a DR600 thread but I did a quick search and did not find it.
ANyone know where he can find that?

Sorry Wybs, but that's not quite right. The "bad" fibre base gasket was still being used till mid way through 2003, but the "new improved" metal gaskets are easy to spot because they have two metal tabs protruding which helps potential owners identify fibre from metal gaskets. Jesse has a list of the engine numbers affected, worth doing a search on the Yahoo forum - there are a million posts on this subject! As far as the freebee manual is concerned, I understand that if you register with the BBS 650 Forum, you can get a pdf version gratis. Hope that's correct.
Cheers Dave.

Apologies Wybs, I misread your post, I thought it said "not used after 2000", but actually says "not used until after 2000". That's what you get doing emails @ 6.30 a.m, when you should be sleeping! :bonk:

Thanks for all your help, guys. Hopefully this is something simple because other than the oil seepage, the bike is perfect. I like the idea of a free shop manual too!

Quick update - I can confirm that the DR650 BBS does indeed have the shop manual available, the hi-res version is approximately 84mb. The problem IS the base gasket after all and a mutual mechanic friend of ours has agreed to replace it. According to the manual, this can be done without pulling the engine. That was a surprise to me. Anyway, thanks for all the advice and it looks like I will be a DR owner before long.

Cheers,